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Book Review: Restoring American Gardens

© Georgene A. Bramlage

Restoring American Gardens: An Encyclopedia of Heirloom Ornamental Plants - 1640-1940 by Denise Wiles Adams is a refreshing look at the expanding field of garden restoration. This book makes a welcome addition for the professional or dedicated amateur gardener's reference bookshelf and a wonderful selection for local libraries whose patrons are keen about gardening.

Adams holds a Ph.D. in horticulture from Ohio State (Columbus) and is a horticultural consultant and ornamental-plant historian. She and her husband, John, live in a nineteenth-century former tavern in rural Virginia where she has designed and planted a blend of traditional and modern gardens that complement, rather than slavishly follow, the building's history. I appreciate the number of times Adams uses anecdotes and pictures of her own gardens to highlight particular design details. Adams has also, for a decade, owned an heirloom flower and herb nursery.

Although this book is first and foremost an encyclopedia of heirloom ornamental plants, the layout and composition of the first three chapters clearly demonstrate the order necessary to explore gardens in America's past. When you diligently read Adams' explanatory chapters, an easy-to-follow, self-guiding tutorial emerges.

Reading the Historic Landscape (Chapter 1) neatly defines and describes the similarities and differences among:

• preservation,
  
• restoration,
  
• reconstruction,
  
• rehabilitation,
  
• and an eclectic approach that Adams identifies as making-a-new-layer.

In this chapter, Adams also stresses the importance of documenting historic features and adding details from a site inventory. Novice researchers will appreciate Adams' suggestions of where to find further clues. Some of these are:

• county court houses to view old survey and tax maps;
  
• U.S. Geological Survey maps and aerial photographs;
  
• collections in local historical societies;
  
• the Archives of American Gardens at the Smithsonian Institution (www.si.edu/gardens/aag.htm).

Adams also warns about the tension that exists during historic garden research between what might be defined as "the real" versus "the ideal". ...many dwellings in former times did not have extensive gardens or well-developed cultivated landscapes, and photos and records...convey this. Sometimes only a morning glory vine on a string and a red maple tree in the front yard composed all the ornamental plantings.

And finally Adams discusses the point at which most of us would like to begin garden restoration work: developing a plant list. However, before making lists and embarking on a plant hunt, Adams advises observing and recording plant material over several seasons if possible. Adams cautions that ...if possible, nothing should be removed until this inventory has been completed. It might be difficult to wait, but don't clean up until everything is recorded.